TOMS RIVER -- Forget about last week, Lenape girls coach Gerald Richardson told his team.
If everybody performs up to their capabilities, he said, the Indians can make up the difference they lost to Southern Regional at the group sectionals last week – 2.5 points – and leave the Bennett Center Saturday with their first state championship ever, a span of more than 50 years.
"Let's bounce back and show the state what we're made out of," Richardson told his squad. "Let's show the state that, hey, we're not just a group team who won the [NJSIAA Group 4 Championship]."
The girls certainly listened, winning the NJSIAA Group 4 Championship with 48 points, five more than Southern Regional.
And the bounce-back, fittingly enough, started with the high jump.
While Richardson was penciling in star athletes in their signature events, one of his elites, junior Danielle Ward, was coloring in Mr. Potato Head and Curious George in the high-jump area.
"It's just relaxing so I just do that for fun," she said of her coloring-book hobby.
With that warcry, Ward, one half of the Indians' amazing duo of high jumpers, leaped 5-4 for third place. Sometime during the two-hour duration of the high jump, senior teammate Lindsey Walsh landed the top height of 5-6, took second in the 55 hurdles in 8.45 and ate some peanut butter crackers.
Given their quirks, both jumpers still put more time in the event than anyone knows – anyone who wakes up after 6 a.m. anyway.
"If I can jump at six in the morning on the gymnasium floor, it makes it a little easier to come out here and jump late in the afternoon on a nice surface," Walsh said.
With the meet already in hand, the 4x400 team of juniors Katie Duffey, Mikki Livingston, seniors Brianna Beddall and Miya Johnson did not let up, running a season-best 3:58.58 for third.
Before officially making history, sophomore Caitlin Orr, in tough company, hung in the 3,200 for third place, running the 16 laps in a season-best 11:15.74. Being one of the top six finishers, Williamstown junior Maria Ruiz is also moving on to next week' Meet of Champions by placing fifth (11:28.74).
Against tougher company, say, All-American Southern Regional's Jillian Smith, Lenape senior Miya Johnson's second-place finish in a season-best 5:09.05 gleams in gold to Richardson.
"We weren't trying to beat Jill," coach Gerald Richardson said of Smith, the current holder of the national-best time in the mile (4:48.83). "Miya's a classy enough runner that she can run for second."
Eastern sophomore English Gardner, who was the 2007 state champion in the 55 dash and the 400 as a freshman, zipped to a 7:08 for the dash repeat and passed on competing in the 400.
"Just out of respect for the competition, we had to pick one or the other," Anderson said. "It would have been tough to come and make that double with that time frame.
In that 400, Oakcrest junior Nijgia Snapp improved upon last week's winning time with a 55.65, a new personal best.
With Old Bridge winning the boys Group 4 Championship with 28 points, Washington Township edged Absegami for second, by one point for South Jersey bragging rights.
While coming close to a state title last year, Washington Township senior Kwabena Keene won the shot put with a hurl of 54-4.25.
"He narrowly lost [ the state title] by two inches," Washington Township coach Rich Bostwick. "That's been with him for a year. It's nice to get that title out of the way."
While the heartbreaking loss ate away at Keene, the senior's stomach was empty up to his 5 p.m. throw, a result of his anxiety.
"I have to concentrate on one event the whole meet. I can't relax until the meet is over," the 6-foot, 220-pound defensive lineman said moments after his 5 p.m. event. "I like to stay focused."
Minuteman teammate junior Xavier Fraction placed second in the 1,600 in 4:20.71, edging Lenape junior Ryan Garvin's 4:20.93 who nipped Hillsborough's Jason Walton. The ending was a blur for Garvin, who bettered his personal record by nearly 10 seconds.
"I don't remember the end. It was kind of hazy," Garvin said. "I don't remember catching the kid from Hillsboro. I just remember coming down the stretch and collapsing."
Although he qualified for the 1,600 last week, Absegami Ford Palmer skipped it to concentrate on the 800, a decision that helped result in South Jersey's fastest time this season, 1:56.04, good for third.
Millville senior Elijah Jones placed fifth in the race in 1:58.13 while senior teammate Chris Church beat Absegami's Geof Navarro (6.6o) to win the 55 dash in 6.54.
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